A Member of Congress proposes to use taxpayer money to fund the development of technology to track motorists as part of a new form of taxation. US Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) introduced H.R. 3311 earlier this year to appropriate $154,500,000 for research and study into the transition to a per-mile vehicle tax system. The “Road User Fee Pilot Project” would be administered by the US Treasury Department. This agency in turn would issue millions in taxpayer-backed grants to well-connected commercial manufacturers of tolling equipment to help develop the required technology. Within eighteen months of the measure’s passage, the department would file an initial report outlining the best methods for adopting the new federal transportation tax.I believe in Oregon they based the tax on actual odometer readings but didn't take it this far:
“Oregon has successfully tested a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee, and it is time to expand and test the VMT program across the country,” Blumenauer said in a statement on the bill’s introduction. “A VMT system can better assess fees based on use of our roads and bridges, as well as during times of peak congestion, than a fee based on fuel consumption. It is time to get creative and find smart ways to rebuild and renew America’s deteriorating infrastructure.”
Instead, the report urged a mandate for all drivers to install GPS tracking devices that would report driving habits to roadside Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) scanning devices.It's one thing to report odometer readings once a year (and I'm not in favor of that either), and whole different thing to put tracking devices on cars that could be used for a variety of government functions totally unrelated to vehicle taxes.
If this were to come to pass, what would stop local municipalities from enacting laws allowing them to use the data to cite speeding violators? And wouldn't this constitute an unreasonable search? And what happened to the vaunted "right to privacy" Democrats tell us is in the Constitution?
Bad idea.
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3 comments:
Of course this comes from the mind of a Democrat. Just reminded me why I don't want to live in Oregon, or Washington state for that matter. If the Democrats could, they'd tax us every time we broke wind!
As for the "right of privacy," that only applies to a woman's right to abort her unborn baby.
After all the sexual escapades and financial scandles some member's of congress have had the last few years, I think it would be a good idea to put a chip on them so there would be a record of everywhere they go and places they frequent. Maybe, just maybe, they might get some decent work done for their employer (the U.S. Taxpayers)if they knew they were being watched.
I think I won't feel secure with this new rule.
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